By JASON GORDON
SAN ANTONIO – A season ago a bi-district playoff win was quite an accomplishment for the Hays volleyball team.
The Lady Rebs hadn’t won a postseason game since 2008, and their first-round victory over Boerne Champion was one to be celebrated.
Hays would go on to lose to highly-touted Cedar Park in the next round. A loss in the second round of the playoffs won’t be good enough for Hays this year.
The Lady Rebs improved to 29-15 on the season with an easy 25-16, 25-13, 25-15 win over San Antonio Lanier Monday night in the bi-district playoffs.
Hays was never threatened against a much shorter Lanier team that could manage to put up only one block at a time defensively, which meant a simple night of work for the Lady Rebel front line.
“We definitely had a height advantage and were able to do some things they couldn’t defend against,” Hays head coach Erica Walther said. “We still have a lot of work to do, though, if we want to be the kind of team that is worthy of a trip to the state tournament.”
Hays advances to the area round where it will play Vandegrift on Thursday at Dripping Springs High School at 7 p.m.
Sydney Paradeaux and Hannah Ramsey led Hays with 10 kills each. Dezaray Garner had eight kills, and Natalie Valdez and Melanie Harrington had six kills apiece for the Lady Rebs. Kathryn Wristen added 36 assists.
“Every journey has to start somewhere and tonight’s win was the push we needed towards state,” Harrington said.
“Tonight was important because it showed us what we need to do to get better for the next round,” Garner added. “Our passion and desire is there, but we still always have to stay focused.”
Log on to www.haysfreepress.com for updated playoff information.
